]]>http://www.vg247.com/2015/02/20/warcraft-movie-director-is-okay-with-cgi/feed/0Amount of CGI vs. live-action in Warcraft movie “between Avatar and Planet of the Apes”http://www.vg247.com/2015/02/09/amount-of-cgi-vs-live-action-in-warcraft-movie-between-avatar-and-planet-of-the-apes/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/02/09/amount-of-cgi-vs-live-action-in-warcraft-movie-between-avatar-and-planet-of-the-apes/#commentsMon, 09 Feb 2015 20:25:25 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=511931Warcraft movie news are very scarce, until director Duncan Jones hops on Twitter to talk to fans and tease us a bit more.

Duncan Jones, director of the upcoming Warcraft movie has been answering fan questions and teasing a few details about the 2016 flick on Twitter.

First, regarding the amount of CGI that will be used in the film, Jones had this to say:

.@tcwoolley I would say that we fit somewhere between Planet of the Apes, Fellowship of the Ring and Avatar.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/11/09/more-details-revealed-on-the-warcraft-movie-at-blizzcon-2014-panel/feed/0We might be very close to a Warcraft 3 re-releasehttp://www.vg247.com/2014/10/07/warcraft-3-the-frozen-throne-icons-found-new-battle-net-launcher/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/10/07/warcraft-3-the-frozen-throne-icons-found-new-battle-net-launcher/#commentsTue, 07 Oct 2014 09:13:54 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=494773The classic Warcraft strategy games could be on their way to the recently-updated Battle.net launcher, according to some data mined from the latest update.

The latest update to the Battle.net launcher, a game launcher dedicated to Blizzard games, has added icons of older Warcraft games, like Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, according to MMO-Champion.

No actual support was added for any of the games yet though, but as IGN notes, Blizzard said back at Blizzcon of last year that a small team was working on bringing the classic RTS games to modern systems.

Oh, Secret of Mana: how we love thee. Never had we blowed so hard on a worn out SNES cartridge, just to get you working again. With a banner real-time battle system, jaw dropping graphics, and a stellar soundtrack, for some of us, it is one of the greatest games ever. Even though the menu system was overly frustrating at first, and the story was very Japanese for some, it was unique with fun co-op and super smart AI for its time. And finally being granted access to Flammie the dragon? Seeing him fly above a ground rendered in 3D? Being able to ride him? Forget about it. The game was released 20 years ago, and yet, it still manages to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

49. Guild Wars

It boggled the mind in 2005 how ArenaNet planned to succeed in the competitive world of MMOs with a game featuring instanced PvP areas, the ability to group and quest with NPCs, and not forcing a subscription on players. It was destined to fail according to some pundits. Well, it didn’t. It succeeded and then some. By April 2009, 6 million units had been sold. It’s sequel, Guild Wars 2 released in 2012, set the bar even higher with its updated graphics and gameplay mechanics, a storyline responsive to player actions, dynamic event systems instead of the typical MMO questing, and a persistent world. All of this, and again with no subscription fees. Both were and remain a breath of fresh air in an increasingly stagnant MMO genre and are deserving of unparallelled praise for such innovation.

48. The Elder Scrolls: IV: Oblivion

The red-headed stepchild of modern Elder Scrolls games, Oblivion is unfairly derided by a generation who just didn’t love it as much as Morrowind. How can you follow a game which changed western RPGs forever, bringing them to the mainstream via consoles? Bethesda gave it a red-hot try, but nobody wanted to wander around the sunny plains of Cryodiil after the ash-strewn slopes of Vvardenfell. Still, comparisons to big brother aside, it’s a huge, brilliant fantasy epic and one of the most important chapters in the evolving TES lore. Many of its best concepts (streamlined gameplay, an intensifying calamity) were recycled to great effect in Skyrim – where the addition of snow somehow made everything alright again?

47. The Legend of Dragoon

Sure the battles could be a bit repetitive and the combo system was unforgiving at times, but despite all this, The Legend of Dragoon was damn good game. While else have there been numerous requests from fans for Sony to release another entry? It was beautiful, the storyline was tight, you could transform into a more powerful form in battle, and multiple use items were peppered across the game for the player to find in order to increase stats. And how many of you actually collected all the stardust, thus acquiring the Vanishing Stone so you could face superboss Magician Faust?

46. Ultima Online

Where do you even start? With Ultima Online, the first really successful graphical MMORPG? With nine core games and a dozen spin-offs? With the huge breadth of talent at the late Origin Systems? Or maybe with the suspected madness of Richard “Lord British” Garriott, who loved the worlds he helped create so much he can’t stop doing author-inserts and appears as a major, recurring NPC? Ultima is pure western fantasy, if not at its finest then certainly at some of its peaks.

45. Fable

In more innocent times Fable felt fresh and funny. An RPG set within a crooked take on the eccentric British, Peter Molyneux’s first attempt at Fable came without all the pretentious bullshit. The difficult choices were always binary so you only ever turn out purely evil or saintly good, but on the way you get to marry, drink and fart like a trooper. If nothing else it’s just bloody good fun.

44. System Shock 2

Ken Levine may have perfected his gameplay mechanics years after its release, but this survival horror, cyberpunk RPG laid the groundwork for all BioShock games to come. Released as a sequel to the 1994 PC game, the 1999 release thrust players into a starship to stop a genetic outbreak – all by yourself. Like its predecessor, the game mixed FPS elements with the ability to build up your skills and traits. While it wasn’t deemed a commercial success, it has been credited as the inspiration behind several shooters and other genres with its innovative progression system. Add in the fact this was NOT a game you wanted to play in the dark lest you wet yourself, it deserves to be on any “best of” list.

43. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

For some of us, Level-5 can do no wrong, and Ni No Kuni proved our opinion of the developer was valid with this breathtakingly lovely DS and PS3 release. Combined with studio Ghibli’s traditional animation style and cutscenes, the player cannot help but be drawn into Oliver’s world as he and the fairy Drippy try to thwart the evil wizard Shadar. It’s a touching story, as Oliver is convinced he can bring his mother Allie back to life and help broken-hearted people affected by Shadar along the way. When he finally confronts the White Witch, we are met with a touchingly bittersweet ending to a fabulous effort by the developers.

42. Anachronox

Ion Storm’s forgotten game, Anachronox is the neglected middle child to bratty Daikatana and smug Deus Ex. Tom Hall’s name is still spoken of in reverent tones whenever fans of this beautiful project gather, and with good reason: Anachronox fronts a beautiful world, a gently good-humoured tone and bitingly good writing. Consigned to cult classic status, it deserved so much more.

41. The Legend of Heroes

If the Ys titles aren’t enough for you to appreciate Nihon Falcom, then you need to get your hands on one of the myriad of The Legend of Heroes titles. Starting life as an action series called Dragon Slayer, after the second entry, Falcom dropped the Dragon Slayer bits altogether to focus on turn-based RPG combat. Sure, the main series lived on in other Legends titles, but these branched off from the family tree. Most people familiar with the series had to import the titles, but thankfully, Falcom finally released The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky west in 2011.The series as a whole may be a bit obscure, but it greatly appeals to both the niche and JRPG crowds, and is therefore a notable entry on any RPG list.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/08/29/50-best-rpgs-ever/feed/0Prophet Medivh is played by Ben Foster in the Warcraft moviehttp://www.vg247.com/2014/05/31/prophet-medivh-is-played-by-ben-foster-in-the-warcraft-movie/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/05/31/prophet-medivh-is-played-by-ben-foster-in-the-warcraft-movie/#commentsSat, 31 May 2014 16:11:46 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=475631Legendary Warcraft character, Medivah, will be in the upcoming Warcraft movie, and will be played by actor Ben Foster.

Foster spoke to IGN about the Duncan Jones film, “The character in Warcraft that I play is named Medivh. He’s a mage, which is essentially a sorcerer.

Possible spoilers below.

“He came up in a time protecting an area, and the way he protected this area was through magic. As peace returned to this land he took a break. He hung up his staff, so to speak, or let his guns get dusty. We meet him as his friends are returning asking for his help in a battle.”

Foster added that the story will display both sides of the conflict and praised the visual effects of the film. “The way that they’re pushing motion-capture — I just saw some of the test footage — it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s performance-capture. It pushes it to the next level. It’s going to be one helluva 3D event,” he said.

The Warcraft movie is slated for a March 2016 release.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/05/31/prophet-medivh-is-played-by-ben-foster-in-the-warcraft-movie/feed/2Warcraft movie post production may take 20 monthshttp://www.vg247.com/2014/05/07/warcraft-movie-post-production-may-take-20-months/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/05/07/warcraft-movie-post-production-may-take-20-months/#commentsWed, 07 May 2014 02:37:31 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=469937Warcraft, the Duncan Jones-directed movie based on the family of Blizzard games related to World of Warcraft, is going to need almost two years in post-production, apparently.

According to Legendary Fuilms CEO Thomas Tull, though, the project may need almost all that time to complete – because the production company wants to ensure it lives up to Jones’s vision.

“There are some sequences and some things that Duncan Jones has done that are truly on the cutting edge. You want to have plenty of time to make sure that we dial those in,” Tull told CraveOnline.

“So by the time they get home and set up, it’ll be a little less than two years. It’ll be about 20 months but we really want to take our time and get this right because the technology that’s employed really is some next generation stuff.”

Tull admitted that “part of it is getting the date right”, too, thanks to “pretty big titles coming out” over the next few years – including the new Star Wars movie – but that the team will “absolutely” use the time.

On the subject of the film itself, Tull said that Warcraft might not be as much of an intellectual affair as Moon and Source Code, but won’t be a brain-in0neutral action affair, either.

“I would say it’s a linear story, but at the same time, it’s Duncan Jones. That’s what we wanted,” he said.

“That different flare, not just straightforward fantasy and everything. Look, it’s a privilege. Being able to go from Interstellar’s our fifth movie with Chris Nolan into Guillermo del Toro and Gareth Edwards and now Duncan Jones. It’s really a privilege to work around these folks,” he added.

Carbine and NCsoft will publish WildStar in June – a new sci-fi MMO built by a team that has honed its skills on some of the standout hits of the genre. But regardless of past success, MMOs are a notoriously difficult market where players flirt with new releases only to return to the big time-consuming loves they’ve been loyal to for years.

The staff at Carbine have great heritage and experience in the MMO market – Warhammer, Everquest, Warcraft, City of Heroes, Free Realms – all of which have had their time in the sun. What are the key things you’ve learnt from those games that you’re applying to WildStar?

“We’ve been training ourselves to do monthly updates because we think the era of waiting 3-6 six months and then doing a big update is kind of over.”

Jeremy Gaffney: There’s stuff that’s been done well before but we want to do it better. When stuff hasn’t been done well or it’s never been done we want to make sure we have a good mix of that. We don’t want to completely reinvent wheels we don’t need to, but also, we want to deliver something new, not something people have been playing for the past ten years.

All those games have all been successful, is there anything specific that you can take from those games and apply with a WildStar twist?

Jeremy Gaffney: Housing is an interesting one. Everquest 2 had a pretty good housing system but we wanted to make sure that it’s really social, it’s over-the-top, we build a world where you can do all sorts of crazy stuff. We have ferris wheels and mining nodes that modify the terrain – I don’t think anyone has done that with their housing system before.

There has to be technical differences as well as gameplay differences. World of Warcraft did raiding better than anyone had done it before but with our action combat system we can make it fun and a challenge not just for the guys doing the damage. Everybody’s got to react when this is going on. You can’t really sit there as a Healer targeting spells. You’ve got to be dodging around, lining up heals – it needs to be a skill game. These are the sorts of things where even when people have done them really well before we want to take it up a notch. And some things are brand new. Nobody ever did Warplots before – build a giant death fortress. If that’s in another game I have not played it.

Within reason, you’re trying to remove as many restrictions as possible in order to the let the player go as wild as they want to – base building, customisation…

Jeremy Gaffney: I think that’s a pretty true statement. We have a mantra to let players play how they want to play. We know the MMO market is made up of a couple of different types of players. Richard Bartle did research back in the days that said some people really love exploring and play games to hunt down the hidden things. Some people are socialisers. Some are all into achievement. So we took that and basically made the path system where you choose what type of thing you like to do and build the world around you.

“In the US and Europe around 65 percent of people play MMOs primarily as single-player games.”

About 25 percent of the content is scavenger hunts, unlocking the map, or more combat for soldiers. That also applies to the fact that we know there are different brands of people for different leveling – some want to play entirely solo. In the US and Europe around 65 percent of people play MMOs primarily as single-player games. Are there fun things to do for people who like to solo, those who like PvE, those who like to kill their friends, PvP, do they like small group play or larger groups? You have to make sure you satisfy as many folk as possible without diluting the whole experience.

If you’re trying to build something for everybody you have to focus on the great experiences, not the mediocre ones.

You’re taking on a lot – a lot of player choice. But how do you balance that and enforce rules that will constrain some of the fun or some of the options to players?

Jeremy Gaffney: We’ve done it really by just throwing lots of really smart people at it. And then the secret to life in this business is you listen. We spend a lot of time hearing what our fans have to say, both in the game, through the forums and via social media. And we also mine a crap-load of data out of the game to discover things like where are the quit points? If you map every character who has not logged in for the last three weeks and put them on a big map in the office you’ll see the hotspots – what is it about this dungeon or this area or battleground that’s driving people out? We do that to tune the game and find things that don’t work so we can either fix or pull out. We survey everybody to find out the best quests and the worst quests. When you log out we ask if you had fun, was the game’s performance good, do you intend to buy the game? Fun is the number one most important thing to track.

We ask people to rate areas out of five and over 50 percent give a five and the next highest ranking is a four. So our mission in life isn’t to stress over the 1 scores but work out how to get the fours up to fives.

This industry is giving so much access as to what the hell is going on in your world but often as a developer you’re so busy trying to get the damn thing done that you don’t have the luxury to do it scientifically.

“This industry is giving so much access as to what the hell is going on in your world but often as a developer you’re so busy trying to get the damn thing done that you don’t have the luxury to do it scientifically.”

Since you’ve had the beta running has the game changed significantly or has the feedback been a refining process?

Jeremy Gaffney: The thing is we do huge changes every month. We’ve been training ourselves to do monthly updates because we think the era of waiting 3-6 six months and then doing a big update is kind of over. We’ve been training ourselves to do large updates every month. We’re in tuning mode right now because we want to be fixing things. But still within that it’s 71 pages of patch notes for last months’ worth of work. But this is important. You not only want to fix the things that are important but we’ve set ourselves up to be churning out large amounts of content so there’s new stuff for people to do, and we’re also refining what’s in there.

We’ve been doing that for the last six months although we haven’t really publicised it too much as a thang because as we get closer people before launch want to have the game proven. As intelligent games designers you have to be thinking to the future. We are not a business where you go out and sell 100,000 boxes and you’re done. We’re a game where you hopefully attract millions of people but then the real question is how long are they going to stay? We’ve seen MMO after MMO that has moved 1, 2, 3 million boxes but how many of them keep those players for any length of time? That’s really the challenge of our industry.

You say you’ve been doing monthly updates while WildStar is in beta – is that something you intend to continue once the game is live?

Jeremy Gaffney: Yes. Really the goal is as frequently as possible. If we can get that down to two weeks we’ll do it. We’ve actually mapped out and we have pre-production done on the first 16 monthly updates. That sounds mildly insane but we just walked through them as a group the other day. Some are quests that need art but there’s a significant amount of work that’s been put into a year-plus into the future, so that we can make sure we can hit that. This past month had 71 pages of patch notes and some of that has been worked on for months in advance. If you’re making a new dungeon or a new raid you better have a concept artist working on that. It’s a process that can take a year. If you hear of someone coming out as an MMO who doesn’t have a really damn good idea of what their next years’ worth of content is, it means they’re not going to have much of it.

If you’re so far advanced with forward planning how do you respond to players reactively? People play differently and their taste changes very quickly. With an MMO it takes a long time to build the game, so how flexible can that next 16-month schedule be after the game is live, when it can become a different game once it’s in the real world?

“We’re not after no player deaths, we like player deaths. We just want them where we intend the death to be.”

Jeremy Gaffney: Half the team is devoted to doing long-term content – literally half – working on mapping out content and advancing the world story for us. And half the team is in reactive mode where they’re in reserve to tackle what needs to be tackled on a monthly basis, such as dealing with an economy issue that needs to be fixed. Or looking up at our death map on the wall and seeing that 200 percent more people die in this zone compared to the others so it needs retuning, or there’s an area of the map where people are quitting frequently so we need to focus on that specifically – is it too boring or grindy? So we have a split team either reacting in real-time or mapping out for the long haul.

Tell me about the death map – is that for tracking every player death, reason, location?

Jeremy Gaffney: We generate heat maps every week to figure out where players are dying most. We’re not after no player deaths, we like player deaths. We just want them where we intend the death to be. We map out where players die, where they quit, where bug reports come in. One of the most useful things from player bug reports is that they’re adding into the player data for the big maps – is it something that’s visual that players are reporting or is it very annoying and interrupting play? Our QA teams then dig in and solve the problems.

WildStar is currently in beta. Keep an eye on VG247 for invites to the beta. The game is due for release in June.

That’s according to Jason Chayes, production director on the game, who said the team has heard players ask about a console version of the title – but the developer is currently focused on the Android version of the card battler.

“It’s not something we’re actually looking at right now. We feel like we have our hands full in the short term with getting onto Android as soon as we can, which is kind of one of the big priorities we’re looking at right now.”

“What we’ve said in the past, and this will continue to be the case, is that we want to be able to hear back from our community and our players what they’re really interested in, what they’re very passionate about. If getting Hearthstone onto console is something there’s a huge interest in, then we’d love to hear about that so it’s something we can be thinking about.”

He did confirm that there are plans to introduce a spectator mode in some capacity, with details likely in the coming weeks.

“Twitch has been great, all the streamer support has been awesome and it’s something that’s really kind of surprised us a little bit, in terms of moving out of the beta and into release and how popular that’s been, which has been incredible and awesome.

“But that said, we do think we have a bunch of unique ideas on how we can integrate a spectator mode into the game. It is actually something we’re right now literally in the middle of designing and we’re looking at having some more information to share on that in the coming weeks as well.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/04/28/hearthstone-on-consoles-its-not-something-were-actually-looking-at-right-now/feed/1Warcraft movie delayed into 2016http://www.vg247.com/2013/11/27/warcraft-movie-delayed-into-2016/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/11/27/warcraft-movie-delayed-into-2016/#commentsWed, 27 Nov 2013 22:27:20 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=430912The Warcraft movie has been pushed back a couple of months from December 18, 2015 to March 11, 2016, according to a Variety report. It’s one of a couple of changes Universal and Legendary have made to their release schedule, and no explanation was given – but speculation blames the new Star Wars movie, which opens on Warcraft’s original release date. We got our first story details on the Duncan Jones-directed film at Blizzcon 2013.

The rumour comes via Deadline, which reports Patton is in negotiations over the role, but that Farrell’s casting is still chancy.

Farrell has appeared in a wide variety of films including Total Recall and Seven Psychopaths, while Patton is probably best known for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, but was also in Déjà Vu and Mirrors.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/23/warcraft-movie-may-star-colin-farrell-paula-patton-rumour/feed/11Warcraft movie: Legendary Pictures to start filming on January 14 – reporthttp://www.vg247.com/2013/08/29/warcraft-movie-legendary-picture-to-start-filming-on-january-14-report/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/29/warcraft-movie-legendary-picture-to-start-filming-on-january-14-report/#commentsThu, 29 Aug 2013 19:24:44 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=403415Legendary pictures’ Warcraft movie could start filming as early as January 13, 2014 in Vancouver, according to a Production Weekly report. The site tweeted that the studio has set up offices in the region. A teaser for the film was shown during Comic-Con and Duncan Jones is lasted to direct. Via IGN.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/29/warcraft-movie-legendary-picture-to-start-filming-on-january-14-report/feed/2Warcraft movie teaser trailer shown at Comic-Conhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/07/20/warcraft-movie-teaser-trailer-shown-at-comic-con/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/20/warcraft-movie-teaser-trailer-shown-at-comic-con/#commentsSat, 20 Jul 2013 19:24:32 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=390562The World of Warcraft movie was teased during Comic-Com today thanks to a short trailer shown off by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. The film directed by Duncan Jones, is scheduled to start shooting in early 2014. The teaser was a live-action, CG mix and showed a Warrior roaming an empty desert with a shield on his back facing off with an Orc. The film will simply be titled Warcraft. Once someone loads this up on YouTube we’ll post it for you here. Thanks, CinemaBlend.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/20/warcraft-movie-teaser-trailer-shown-at-comic-con/feed/26Warcraft movie: Life of Pi Oscar winner signs as VFX directorhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/04/26/wacraft-movie-life-of-pi-oscar-winner-signs-as-vfx-director/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/04/26/wacraft-movie-life-of-pi-oscar-winner-signs-as-vfx-director/#commentsFri, 26 Apr 2013 04:26:32 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=361791Bill Westenhofer has signed on as visual effects director for the Warcraft movie, fresh from winning a 2013 Academy Award for Life of Pi.

Blizzard executive Nick Carpenter announced the news via Twitter, commenting that he had had his first meeting with Westenhofer and the film is “in good hands”.

Westenhofer is a visual effects supervisor at Rhythm and Hues Studios. His work has appeared in a wide variety of works, including The Golden Compass, which won a Bafta and Academy Award in 2008; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was Oscar-nominated; Men in Black 2; Stuart Little; and much more.

“First, they asked me if I wanted to make it, and I said, ‘Yes, I love World of Warcraft, and I think it would make a great picture.’ So I read a screenplay they had that was written by the guys at Blizzard, and it didn’t quite work for me. I told them I wanted to make my own original story with Robert, so we pitched it to Legendary and they accepted it, and then we pitched it to Blizzard, and they had reservations, but they accepted it,” the director said.

“Then Robert wrote the screenplay, and only once he was done did we realize that Blizzard had veto power, and we didn’t know that. And they had never quite approved the original story we pitched them. Those reservations were their way of saying, ‘We don’t approve this story, and we want to go a different way,’ so after we had spent nine months working on this thing, we basically had to start over.

“And Robert did start over, but it was taking too long for the people at Blizzard, and their patience ran out. Honestly, I think it was mismanagement on their behalf, not to explain to us that the first story was vetoed long ago. Why did they let us keep working on it? Were they afraid to tell me?”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/31/warcraft-movie-duncan-jones-on-board-johnny-depp-rumoured/feed/10Blizzard files complaint to acquire ‘Heroes of Warcraft’ domainhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/11/20/blizzard-files-complaint-to-acquire-heroes-of-warcraft-domain/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/20/blizzard-files-complaint-to-acquire-heroes-of-warcraft-domain/#commentsTue, 20 Nov 2012 10:59:20 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=317285Blizzard has filed a complaint with the owner of web domain HeroesofWarcraft.com in order to acquire the URL for itself. It comes as the studio recently acquired WarcraftBattles.com, sparking chatter that a fourth Warcraft title could be in the works. Find out more below.

The complaint – Case No. 1470639 – challenges the current domain owner, who is allegedly based in the UK, as suggested by WHOIS records. This could just be part of Blizzard’s plan to cover its own back, but interestingly enough, Fusible adds that the studio also registered HeroesofWarcraft.co.uk recently, adding fuel to the Warcraft 4 rumour fire.

What do you make of this issue? Speak your brains below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/20/blizzard-files-complaint-to-acquire-heroes-of-warcraft-domain/feed/9The Story of Warcraft recaps events leading up to Mists of Pandariahttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/22/the-story-of-warcraft-recapitulates-events-leading-up-to-mists-of-pandaria/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/22/the-story-of-warcraft-recapitulates-events-leading-up-to-mists-of-pandaria/#commentsSat, 22 Sep 2012 16:33:25 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=300018Blizzard has launched a subsection on Battle.net which tells The Story of Warcraft from its beginnings in 1994 all the way up to Hour of Twilight – the last content released for World of Warcraft. The section breaks down each bit of lore from Warcraft and World of Warcraft by individual release in the form of chapters offering a synopsis, videos and really nice artwork. It should get you caught up on the entire story of the Warcraft series in preparation for Mists of Pandaria’s launch next week. head on through the link for a read. Thanks, Lore Hound.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/22/the-story-of-warcraft-recapitulates-events-leading-up-to-mists-of-pandaria/feed/3Sam Raimi exits World of Warcraft filmhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/07/18/sam-raimi-exits-world-of-warcraft-film/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/18/sam-raimi-exits-world-of-warcraft-film/#commentsWed, 18 Jul 2012 06:58:34 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=277919Sam Raimi is no longer on board an upcoming World of Warcraft film, the director has revealed.

“Actually, they don’t have me directing World of Warcraft anymore because when I took the Oz job, they had to move on to another director. They had to start making it,” Raimi told Crave Online at San Diego Comic Con.

The prolific producer – who is best known for Evil Dead and first three Spider-man films as well as TV series Xena, Hercules and Spartacus – has been attached to the World of Warcraft film since mid-2009.

The production is a joint effort of Blizzard and Legendary Pictures, and is being produced by Charles Roven, the man behind the Nolan Batman trilogy along with Blizzard’s Chris Metzen.

Duncan Jones, the director of movie Moon, says he’s “hugely jealous” of director Sam Raimi being the man in charge of the World of Warcraft movie.

“I’m very cynical of the number of directors who say they’re actual gamers,” he told BadAss Digest (via NME).

“I’m a real gamer and I think there are less real gamers involved in directing only because you have to spend so much time making films that there’s no time to be a hardcore gamer. I’m just slightly insane and I stay up all night playing games.”

Jones, who also happens to be David Bowie’s son, also reckons it could just be the first “good” game-to-film adaptation.

“I’m hugely jealous of Sam Raimi. I really believe World of Warcraft could be the launch of computer games as good films. From the little I’ve read of interviews with him the way he’s approaching it makes so much sense. It’s not worrying about how the game plays, it’s about creating the world of the game and investing the audience in that world.”

The last heard on the WoW movie was that it was put on the backburner. But at BlizzCon last October, Blizzard loremaster Chris Metzen made a massive vow: “We are going to do it right.”

Blizzard’s Vice president of creative development, Chris Metzen, has said the progress on the World of Warcraft movie has slowed, but it’s still happening.

Speaking at Comic Con during a WoW merchandising panel, Metzen said director Sam Raimi is still “very, very passionate” about making the movie, and once the screenplay treatment is finished, “hopefully it’ll start moving very quickly, very soon.”

Back in April, Metzen told VG247 Blizzard was “kinda getting a lot of values together” regarding the story and how best to do the movie.

Sounds like things haven’t evolved much further in the past few months, but all big projects take time, especially if it’s to be done right.

On another WoW related note, Metzen also announced during the panel the next WoW novel will be called The Shattering, and gives readers a backstory leading up to the Cataclysm expansion.

Metzen said there are “dark times ahead” for Azeroth with Deathwing returning, and large parts of the game world will be destroyed by earthquakes.

“It’s going to get rough out there for a while,” he said. “But there’s a plan. The great heroes always rise to the top.”

Think Services has announced that during GDC next month, Blizzard’s Rob Pardo will give a lecture on design philosophies.

Titled “Making a Standard (and Trying to Stick to it!): Blizzard Design Philosophies”, the company’s VP of game design will discuss how the Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft franchises were created by “establishing our own core [game design] values in the ongoing challenge to deliver a consistent, epic game experience”. The talk will also highlight some of the successes and failures its experienced along the way.

Also announced was Chair co-founder Donald Mustard’s talk on “Designing Shadow Complex”, which will focus on “ideas on how to embrace the ‘limitations’ of the XBLA platform and use them to streamline your game design, prototype your title, and most importantly, boil your feature set down to its core essence of ‘fun.’”

The Smithsonian’s Gerogina Bath-Goodlander and PastPixels’ Chris Melissinos will also give a lecture titled “A Day At The Museum: How The Smithsonian Is Embracing Games”. It will focus on “how the Smithsonian American Art Museum is using ARGs and other games to engage patrons and how the forthcoming Art of Video Games exhibition was started, its goals and what it means for establishing the validity of video game culture.”

Neato.

It was also announced today that Sony would show off its Arc controller in an hour-long lecture.

The info comes from a quote from Sam Raimi, zombie-turned-fantasy super-director:

“We want to be really faithful to the game…to the Horde and the Alliance and the mythology that takes place in the game, and the archetypes that the game presents. I think we would try and find touchstones within the game to make it accurate and true and choose one or some of the lands that are portrayed in the game with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible.

“But we would have our writer, Robert Rodat, really craft an original story within that world that feels like a ‘World of WarCraft’ adventure. Only obviously it’s very different ’cause it’s expanded and translated into the world of a motion picture.”

PARIS, France — Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today confirmed details for the upcoming Warcraft® Regional Finals that will be held between the 26th and 28th of June at the KOMED MediaPark, Cologne. Over recent months, World of Warcraft® 3v3 Arena teams and Warcraft III players across Europe and North America have been climbing their respective qualifying ladders, battling each other for a spot at the Regional Finals.

At the Regional Finals tournament, the top competitors from both North America and Europe will come together in a clash to determine who will advance to the Global Finals. In the end two North American Arena teams, two European Arena teams, two Warcraft III players from North America, and three Warcraft III players from Europe will advance to the Global Finals, which will be held at BlizzCon 2009 this August 21 and 22 in Anaheim, California.

Gamers who are not competing in the contest are welcome to attend, witness the fast-paced action live on stage, and cheer their favorite players on to victory.

For more information or to check out the event videos and galleries from last year’s finals, head to the official Warcraft Regional Finals 2009 website at http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/.